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124 Bizarre Movie Posters From Africa That Are So Bad, They’re Good
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During the '80s and '90s, African artists were tasked with making Hollywood movie posters seem as exciting as possible, regardless of plot. Not only that, a fair share of the time they were creating promotional material for popular movies they hadn't even see. Their works had to sell tickets, so if the movie was said to be gory, the poster had to be the goriest - we're talking skulls, blood, skulls dripping blood, crushed skulls, etc.
Arguably most of these hand-painted bootleg movie posters were produced in Ghana. "World cinema is a lingua franca we all understand," Los Angeles Ernie Wolfe art dealer and collector told The Atlantic. He first noted these weird drawings while traveling in the country in 1990. "These posters appeal to people because [they] invite this really incredible dialogue—a comparison between what you know of a film and how the painter imagined it. And they’re also just really cool drawings."
During the military dictatorships of the 1970s and '80s, restrictive laws cut off the importation of the large-scale offset printing presses, usually used for poster making everywhere else in the world. Because of that, Ghanaians hand-crafted movie posters and other signage well into the 1990s.
The only restriction was the size of the canvases. Any particular one had to fit on one side of a 50kg flour bag or two sides stitched together. Apart from that, there were no limits.
However, with changes in political climate and technology, the hand-crafted posters eventually became obsolete. Until art collectors from the West took an interest. Now, the best movie posters are being sold for as much as $15,000. As the new global market opened, local artists started to create these posters anew.
(h/t cnn)
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Jurassic Park
Alien vs. Predator
Terminator I
You say potato and I say po-tah-to You say terminato and I say termi-nah-to? Let's call the whole thing off!
Home Alone 2 Lost In New York
The Matrix
X-Men
Fair Game
Robin Hood
Mission Impossible
Invasion U.S.A.
From the same person that botched the Jesus painting, comes a new masterpiece.
Apocalypto
Sister Act
Terminator 2
Cujo The Killer Dog
007: The Spy Who Loved Me
The Mask Of Zoro
Jason vs. Freddy
Gladiator
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Alien
Ummmm....huh? Would never know what that movie was about from the poster! What's up with the blade?
Night Of The Demons
Conan The Destroyer
A Nightmare
Top Dog
Anaconda 3
Mr. Nice Guy
Starring Jackie Chan and his lesser known blonde, totally ripped twin sister Jaqueline Chan
Terminator 3
Desperado
The Mummy
Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Arc
Planet Terror
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Sleep Walkers
Desperado
Man's Best Friend
Cat Woman
The Thing
Dracula
Hell Boy
Poltergeist 2
Hellraiser 2
Friday The 13th
Children Of The Corn 3
Commando
Ghost Ship
Freddy vs. Jason
The World Of Drunken Master
A.W.O.L.
The Mummy
Hard Target
Movie Posters From Africa
Um, I believe the correct title was "Interview With the Fierce Ghost Eats Human Region"...
Ghost
Escape From Alcatraz
Elektra
Evil Dead
Movie Posters From Africa
I can't even make a joke about this cuz this is nightmare fuel/pee myself scary...